Globe: Case mired in mixed messages
Post
Tuesday, May 30, 2006, Globe and Mail, Case mired in mixed messages, Gary Mason
VANCOUVER -- Linda Bush is feeling battered.
Because of the attention generated by a lawsuit she filed Friday against the RCMP officer who shot her son last Oct. 29 while he was in police custody, Mrs. Bush has spent the past few days answering more questions than she has cared to about the incident.
"I've had to relive the whole horrible thing with every reporter's phone call," Mrs. Bush said in a telephone interview yesterday from her home in Houston, B.C., where the shooting took place.
"I'm feeling a little beat up, to be honest. It hasn't been much fun."
Last night, the seven-month anniversary of the shooting, Mrs. Bush planned to gather up her two daughters, Renee and Anni, and head to the local RCMP detachment where Ian Bush met his death. They were to stand and pray in the same spot at the back of the police station where family and friends have gathered on the 29th of every month, holding a quiet vigil in his honour.
"I expect it will be a little more tense around there for us because of the lawsuit," she said. "I hope the officers inside understand why we had to do it. It's really not about them."
Mrs. Bush commenced the action against RCMP Constable Paul Koester, as well as B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and Solicitor-General John Les. The lawsuit seeks aggravated and punitive damages.
After seven months, the Bush family has been told virtually nothing by the RCMP about what happened that night, other than that there was a scuffle at the station between Ian and Constable Koester, the arresting officer. Minutes later the 22-year-old mill worker lay dead with a bullet in the back of his head.
The RCMP's own investigation into the shooting was finally turned over to the New Westminster police department on May 10 -- more than six months after the incident -- for an independent review.
New Westminster Deputy Chief Mike Judd said yesterday that he and another officer are working on the review "pretty much full time." He anticipates it will probably take another couple of weeks before it's finished and the file is handed back to the RCMP. Mr. Judd also said he was told by the RCMP not to talk to the news media about the case.
It happens that the RCMP is simultaneously reviewing the actions of a New Westminster police department officer involved in the death of Kyle Tait, a 16-year-old who was shot while sitting in a stolen SUV. Given that both police forces are investigating each other for similar incidents, it's fair to at least question how impartial the review process will actually be.
Meantime, if the RCMP recommends charges be laid against Constable Koester, then the matter would be referred to Crown counsel. In other words, it could be months before the Bush family finds out what happened that night, and why.
The RCMP won't tell the Bush family why its investigation into the shooting has taken so long, given that there is only one person to interview, Paul Koester. The family is not alone in its frustration with the Mounties' handling of the case.
Most media inquiries about the shooting have been directed to Staff Sergeant John Ward, who works out of RCMP headquarters in Vancouver. It was Staff Sgt. Ward who said the "public doesn't have a right to know anything" when he was asked about the force's policies and procedures involving the arrest and release of prisoners. He refused to divulge any information in this regard.
But as Staff Sgt. Ward was saying that here, Sergeant Martin Blais, an RCMP spokesman in Ottawa, was telling a reporter from the Houston Today newspaper that those same policies often varied depending on location and circumstance. As to the question of whether Constable Koester should have been carrying a loaded gun while he was alone with a prisoner, Sgt. Blais said there was no requirement that an officer remove his firearm before interviewing a suspect alone.
While Staff-Sgt. Ward was refusing to tell The Globe and Mail and reporters from other news outlets where Constable Koester had been moved to after the shooting, an RCMP superintendent in Kamloops later confirmed for the Prince George Citizen newspaper that the officer was working for him as part of a "graduated return to work."
Talk about mixed messages.
After Beverley Busson, RCMP Deputy Commission, Pacific Region, sent a letter to The Globe earlier this month complaining about "inaccurate" and "incomplete" information that was being disseminated by the news media about the Bush case, I phoned the RCMP requesting to know what errors The Globe and other media outlets had made. The request came with a pledge to correct any inaccurate information The Globe had reported. In response, Staff Sgt. Ward said in an interview that the news media had "an agenda" when it came to the Bush affair and therefore had no interest in correcting its mistakes.
Apparently, the errors weren't so bad that the RCMP minded them being perpetuated.
It's all rather sad and pathetic, this mess. The RCMP performs a wonderful service in this country. Its ranks are filled with thousands of dedicated men and women. But the Mounties are not above reproach. Nor should they be above answering a few honest questions about the actions of their members.
In that regard, the RCMP has failed the Bush family miserably and made a hash of its public handling of the tragedy. And someone should be called to account for it.
VANCOUVER -- Linda Bush is feeling battered.
Because of the attention generated by a lawsuit she filed Friday against the RCMP officer who shot her son last Oct. 29 while he was in police custody, Mrs. Bush has spent the past few days answering more questions than she has cared to about the incident.
"I've had to relive the whole horrible thing with every reporter's phone call," Mrs. Bush said in a telephone interview yesterday from her home in Houston, B.C., where the shooting took place.
"I'm feeling a little beat up, to be honest. It hasn't been much fun."
Last night, the seven-month anniversary of the shooting, Mrs. Bush planned to gather up her two daughters, Renee and Anni, and head to the local RCMP detachment where Ian Bush met his death. They were to stand and pray in the same spot at the back of the police station where family and friends have gathered on the 29th of every month, holding a quiet vigil in his honour.
"I expect it will be a little more tense around there for us because of the lawsuit," she said. "I hope the officers inside understand why we had to do it. It's really not about them."
Mrs. Bush commenced the action against RCMP Constable Paul Koester, as well as B.C. Attorney-General Wally Oppal and Solicitor-General John Les. The lawsuit seeks aggravated and punitive damages.
After seven months, the Bush family has been told virtually nothing by the RCMP about what happened that night, other than that there was a scuffle at the station between Ian and Constable Koester, the arresting officer. Minutes later the 22-year-old mill worker lay dead with a bullet in the back of his head.
The RCMP's own investigation into the shooting was finally turned over to the New Westminster police department on May 10 -- more than six months after the incident -- for an independent review.
New Westminster Deputy Chief Mike Judd said yesterday that he and another officer are working on the review "pretty much full time." He anticipates it will probably take another couple of weeks before it's finished and the file is handed back to the RCMP. Mr. Judd also said he was told by the RCMP not to talk to the news media about the case.
It happens that the RCMP is simultaneously reviewing the actions of a New Westminster police department officer involved in the death of Kyle Tait, a 16-year-old who was shot while sitting in a stolen SUV. Given that both police forces are investigating each other for similar incidents, it's fair to at least question how impartial the review process will actually be.
Meantime, if the RCMP recommends charges be laid against Constable Koester, then the matter would be referred to Crown counsel. In other words, it could be months before the Bush family finds out what happened that night, and why.
The RCMP won't tell the Bush family why its investigation into the shooting has taken so long, given that there is only one person to interview, Paul Koester. The family is not alone in its frustration with the Mounties' handling of the case.
Most media inquiries about the shooting have been directed to Staff Sergeant John Ward, who works out of RCMP headquarters in Vancouver. It was Staff Sgt. Ward who said the "public doesn't have a right to know anything" when he was asked about the force's policies and procedures involving the arrest and release of prisoners. He refused to divulge any information in this regard.
But as Staff Sgt. Ward was saying that here, Sergeant Martin Blais, an RCMP spokesman in Ottawa, was telling a reporter from the Houston Today newspaper that those same policies often varied depending on location and circumstance. As to the question of whether Constable Koester should have been carrying a loaded gun while he was alone with a prisoner, Sgt. Blais said there was no requirement that an officer remove his firearm before interviewing a suspect alone.
While Staff-Sgt. Ward was refusing to tell The Globe and Mail and reporters from other news outlets where Constable Koester had been moved to after the shooting, an RCMP superintendent in Kamloops later confirmed for the Prince George Citizen newspaper that the officer was working for him as part of a "graduated return to work."
Talk about mixed messages.
After Beverley Busson, RCMP Deputy Commission, Pacific Region, sent a letter to The Globe earlier this month complaining about "inaccurate" and "incomplete" information that was being disseminated by the news media about the Bush case, I phoned the RCMP requesting to know what errors The Globe and other media outlets had made. The request came with a pledge to correct any inaccurate information The Globe had reported. In response, Staff Sgt. Ward said in an interview that the news media had "an agenda" when it came to the Bush affair and therefore had no interest in correcting its mistakes.
Apparently, the errors weren't so bad that the RCMP minded them being perpetuated.
It's all rather sad and pathetic, this mess. The RCMP performs a wonderful service in this country. Its ranks are filled with thousands of dedicated men and women. But the Mounties are not above reproach. Nor should they be above answering a few honest questions about the actions of their members.
In that regard, the RCMP has failed the Bush family miserably and made a hash of its public handling of the tragedy. And someone should be called to account for it.
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